Supermarket techie in mega loyalty-point blag

Siphoned off Nectar into private honeypots

Common Topics

A London IT worker has been found guilty of fraud offences related to scamming supermarket Sainsbury's out of loyalty points worth £70,000.

James Stevenson, 45, of Muswell Hill, was a lead analyst programmer for Sainsbury's and used his position to set up several different accounts to collect the Nectar reward points.

Stevenson was found guilty last month of fraud by false representation for using the dodgy points to buy £8,120 worth of shopping, the Tottenham Journal reports.

He also admitted an offence of theft for transferring loyalty points with a theoretical value of £73,207.80 to accounts which he controlled. Given how slowly such points accrue, we're assuming millions of pounds' worth of purchases would normally be required to build up such a hefty total.

The judge has released Stevenson on bail to spend Christmas with his family while pre-sentencing reports are prepared.

But he warned that a custodial sentence was the likely outcome. Stevenson had run the scam since 2002. ®